For the KLAC you'll need a Korean friend because they don't have interpreters and it's hit or miss if anyone speaks E - for me they didn't. BUT they DO help people, for free - very busy in fact.

they also have a number "132" one can dial from anywhere in korea

I went to the one in gangnam; there are 3 other offices, it might be different there but I can definitely tell you there are lawyers there, they were very nice (sincerely) but they just don't have interpreters.

**also**

Seoul Bar Asso, Mondays from 2-5 is when they have E interpreters; Seocho Station line 2; exit num 8, go straight take first (almost immediate) left, go about 30 meters, on the right there's a large stone building which is on the corner, the entrance is around the corner and actually says "Seoul Bar Assoc." in English.

KLAC is helpful, you should have your story translated and have a hard and soft copy. Show them the hard copy and hope they will let you open your e-mail/soft copy, so that they can easily put the document(s) together for you to submit to the court. Actually, there is someone there that can speak English, they are in the back room/cubicle.

The Seoul Bar Association I find is as wortheless as...

They once told me..."You shouldn't video tape them(my past employer while committing crimes)." I said..."Yeah but they took pictures of me demonstrating." They said..."That's okay, they can do that."

All are equal before the law regardless of gender and race. However, foreigners may not have their voices heard during trials due to a lack of professional interpreters in Korea.

Unlike courts in America, Australia and European countries, Korea has yet to adopt a court interpreter accreditation system, which makes it mandatory for courts to hire certified professional interpreters for foreign nationals.

But many said the time has come for Korea to adopt the system as the country becomes more multi-racial and thus more multi-lingual.

Korean law does not have any provisions on the issue, which means any Korean or foreigner can stand in a courtroom as an interpreter after winning approval from a presiding judge.

Fortunately, though belated, scholars and interpreters have recently teamed up with the Supreme Court to study foreign interpretation systems, a prerequisite step for the introduction of certified court interpreters in local courtrooms.

``Certified court interpreters are necessary to upgrade the domestic court system in the wake of a sudden jump in the number of cases involving foreign nationals,'' Prof. Kwak Joong-chol at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies' graduate school of interpretation and translation told The Korea Times, Monday. ``Under the current court system of not requiring a certificate, nobody guarantees the quality of their interpretation and thus human rights of foreigners cannot be protected.''

According to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, 1,936 foreigners stood in criminal trials as defendants in 2006. During the first half of 2007, 1,347 foreigners were brought to trial, the latest record available. But there are only 164 court interpreters, mostly working at courts in Seoul and suburban areas.

Kwak, a guru for Korean-English simultaneous interpretation, has played a leading role in raising awareness about the importance of certified court interpreters for the sake of a fair and unbiased trial.

On Thursday, the school's Interpretation and Translation Research Institute hosted an international academic conference at the school in Seoul to share ideas and seek efficient ways to adopt the court interpretation system. It was the first international conference of its kind in the country. Deputies from America, Australia, European countries and Japan took part in the meeting to introduce their education programs and certification process for court interpreters.

``Throughout the conference, I have learned that giving exclusive rights of interpreting in a courtroom to certified interpreters is the best way to guarantee interpretation quality and keep court hearings confidential.''

He stressed court interpreters should reproduce the original speech in the target language as closely as possible to the style and register of the original speaker. The court interpreter must have comprehensive knowledge about the legal system and foreign culture, he added.

There was a case that a Korean mother offered testimony in a U.S. court on an accident, in which her son was killed by collapsed bookshelf. During the testimony, she cried out, saying, ``I killed him. I'm the criminal.'' The U.S. court saw the remarks as a confession and put her behind bars on homicide charges. But in fact her remark ``I killed him'' doesn't mean she really killed her son. It refers to ``I am to blame'' in Korean. ``This case proves the importance of comprehensive knowledge about foreign linguistic culture to provide meticulous court interpretation,'' Kwak said.

Judge Park Seong-soo of the Supreme Court's international affairs department said, ``We are fully aware that certified court interpreters are necessary in local courtrooms. We will do our utmost efforts to introduce the system as early as possible.''

As a foreigner having trouble with your boss in Korea you officially have two options :

A) The immigration hotlines that never answer / deliberately tell you things that donít reflect the law just to make their life easier or B) The global help center

Now, when Koreans get ripped off in Yongsan they just accept it. They never think about causing a scene to get their money back (or fighting back at their mean boss at work or whatever). They just accept all these things because Koreans never want to rock the boat - EVER. And so, as nice as the global help center staff are, they donít really tell you anything really useful when youíre in real trouble, they just set you up to roll over.

Tony however, REALLY TELLS YOU WHATíS LEGALLY PERMISSIBLE. I once worked for a NIGHTMARE school that was making me physically ill. Tony asked to see my contract online, was prompt to respond (within an hour!) concise with his advice and above all - RIGHT ON THE MONEY. He really knows the law and is happy to tell you in a nutshell for nothing. NO COST.

When you have all these other official sources telling you that ďthe rulesĒ are to the contrary of Tonyís advice, DONíT LISTEN TO THEM. Tony helped me totally screw my nightmare employer and get out of a seriously tight spot. Global help center would have had me sell myself down the river just to avoid causing offense to someone they donít even know. Nobody in Korea wants to risk their reputation by operating outside acceptable forms of behaviour (like, you know, ACTUALLY FOLLOWING WHAT THE LAW STATES OR SOMETHING!!!).

If we did ever wake up and start paying this guy to be the official union man for foreigners, THOSE DODGY HAGWONS WOULD NEVER GET AWAY WITH ANYTHING EVER AGAIN.
Until that time when we do all finally wake up, heís still the only real person we have in our corner. FACT.

Tony Hellmann. Call him. He may not have tons of time to talk, but then heís NOT GETTING PAID ANYTHING to give you the long and short of it. Face it, you wouldnít get that from any legal man back home. Be thankful. I for one SERIOUSLY SERIOUSLY am.

KLAC does not usually have anyone in their offices who speak English; the vast majority of their clients are Korean. KLAC was not begun with foreigners in mind at all; the staff at one office was quite taken aback when I walked through their doors and were not sure how to proceed (I was their first non-Korean client EVER). There would have been great deal of language-barrier problems had I not spoken enough Korean.

The KLAC's actual contact info is in the first post to this thread, but I'll post it here again:
www.klac.or.kr

Mods, KLAC will not help foreigners and this should not be a sticky. The problem with making a sticky of it is that individuals in need of legal counsel will spend time and effort contacting and trying to communicate with them, only to find out their efforts have been wasted. Perhaps it is time to rethink why it is here.

Seoul Bar Asso, Mondays from 2-5 is when they have E interpreters; Seocho Station line 2; exit num 8, go straight take first (almost immediate) left, go about 30 meters, on the right there's a large stone building which is on the corner, the entrance is around the corner and actually says "Seoul Bar Assoc." in English.

Teachers are often worried about not receiving severance pay. In fact, a few schools try to avoid paying this severance. If this is the case you can contact the local immigration department and they will contact your school directly and will force this payment. If you are fired before completing your 1 year contract and you feel you were unjustly dismissed you can also contact the local immigration department and they will look into matters. No school director in his or her right mind would want to create a situation with immigration. Random checks at schools and delayed visa checks are a nightmare for school directors.

Teachers are often worried about not receiving severance pay. In fact, a few schools try to avoid paying this severance. If this is the case you can contact the local immigration department and they will contact your school directly and will force this payment. If you are fired before completing your 1 year contract and you feel you were unjustly dismissed you can also contact the local immigration department and they will look into matters. No school director in his or her right mind would want to create a situation with immigration. Random checks at schools and delayed visa checks are a nightmare for school directors.